Saturday, February 28, 2009

U2 gave a free gig in London at the BBC tower. Thank you Bono! Not everything is driven by capitalistic needs..Well almost..I would not exactly say this was an entirely charitable event as they were promoting their new album but what the heck...Seeing U2 perform live and that too for free...

Now this is something which can happen to you only if you stay in a major metropolitan city...:-)

In some way, I can relate to myself staying in Mumbai. Nice feeling to have on a Saturday afternoon....

Another thing happened while I was flipping channels. I stopped for a few moments on BBC. They were talking about interesting sites....villageofjoy.com - this has to be the mother page for all forwards ! I liked it..spent a nice hour browsing..

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Slumdog won 8 Oscars..Wow...ya..but I am not really bothered....A.R. Rahman winning two oscars ya well, that was something.

But am I really interested in who wins and who has to be content with a nomination?..No..I am in it for the show...And as the master of ceremonies Hugh, did not stand up to my expectations.

To me, OSCAR nite is a time when humour flows like champagne. Oscar 2009 was as dry as and devoid of wit as a boring compliance training.....It somehow had a look and feel of Bollywoodaward award nite with performances..Though to be honest, some of the bollywood award nites have had more humour. Remember Shahrukh and Saif doing their bits ?

Anyways, apart from the low key Hugh Jackman (who by the way was not there most of the time during the later half of the show), I really liked what Will Smith packed in for those few brief minutes. I enjoyed that. Sean Penn's speech was also refreshing...

May be I am growing up and have started noticing things from a finer angle because I thought I noticed quite a few faults in execution at the Oscars

1. The first time they displayed a video on the screen, some moron actually drew the curtains so the picture was displayed behind the blue curtain and you heard some one call "open it s..."

I was immediately reminded of the Cricket world cup inauguration in the eden gardens at Calcutta. The laser show was fiasco as the curtains were not tied down.

2. The 5 piece screen was a nice implementation. It breaks and moves around. very Nice piece of creativity. However the problem really comes when you have to present one giant screen...There were so many times when you could see cracks visible...The seam was showing..

3. The camera work for the TV audiences was so frustrating..... During the memorial song performed by Queen Latifah, the camera angles kept hovering around the various screens and only "sometimes" focussed properly so that the TV audience could actually have a glimpse of the artists which are no longer there with us..Thankfully, they had some sense and did not focus on queen latifah even once....the swerving of the camera angles really made me swear..

4. Talking about the memorial, I was heartbroken to not see Heath Ledger being included in the service. Is it because he had won the Oscar for the best supporting actor. That is not possible because there are only two people in the world who know the names of the academy winners before they are announced. The two guys from PWC..that is supposed to be it. I feel Heath has been wronged by the academy by not including a small background of his short life's work.

I really have no comments on the concept deployed at this year's award nite. However the closed theatre group kind of atmosphere meant unnecessary TV presence of some stars over and over again. As I said I have no comments on this aspect as the attempt at an original design was made. Something a little different in thinking is always appreciated. The end result however was nothing to write home about.

To think of it, OSCARS have been really hyped up...However I dont value the bollywood version of it as much...Seeing the Osacrs live to me is like fulfilling a year's work in those three and a half hours. I am disappointed, but there is only hope that next year I will feel more cheerful about the show..